The final round of the 2016 FIA World Rally Championship takes the crews to Australia’s New South Wales coast and the gravel shire roads around Coffs Harbour, midway between Sydney and Brisbane. Celebrating its 25th running this year, and the fifth time on the Coffs Coast, Rally Australia presents a mix of challenges with fast and technical stages in the forests and gravel roads in the open countyside. A mix of some new stages will add to the challenge, as could the weather being that the event is now running two months later than previously.

While the FIA World Rally Championship titles have provisionally been secured by Sébastien Ogier, Julien Ingrassia and Volkswagen Motorsport, the battle for second and third for the crews continues, and in the FIA WRC 2 Championship category the title fight is open; this is the remaining title crews can fight for being that the Junior and WRC 3 championships have also been secured. Teemu Suninen, topping the standings, has completed all his nominated rounds and, as the Finn will not be competing in Australia, Esapekka Lappi – his only rival – has the fate of the Championship in his own hands and needs to finish first or second to claim a maiden WRC 2 title.

Of the 23 stages, four will be broadcast live; both runs through the Destination NSW super special stage on Friday and the two passages through Wedding Bells on Sunday, the second being the closing Power Stage.

THE 2016 ROUTE

After the opening ceremony on Thursday evening, Friday takes the contenders to the south of Coffs Harbour with two new stages added; Newry16 and the short Raceway super special stage which is also run the following day. Saturday includes two runs through the long 51 kilometre Nambucca stage and, like Friday, the day closes with the Destination NSW super special stage in the jetty area of Coffs Harbour. Bucca16 is new on Sunday and the event closes with the Wedding Bells stage.

RALLY DATA

MEDIA ACCREDITATION

The Accreditation Centre is located in the Media Centre at Coffs Harbour Education Campus, Cnr Hogbin & Stadium Drive, Coffs Harbour. The opening hours are:

RALLY AUSTRALIA TIMETABLE AND MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES ORGANISED BY THE FIA

FIA PRESS CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE

MANUFACTURER ENTRIES, RALLY AUSTRALIA

ADDITIONAL MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES 

Autograph Signing Session: On Friday and Saturday selected crews will be available for a 15 minute autograph session. This will take place in the service park during the end of day service at the teams’ service areas. 

FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP CLASSIFICATIONS

The provisional classifications for all the WRC Championships can be found on the following link:

http://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2016/standings

STAGE CHART

Shortly after the finish of the event, a downloadable stage chart showing the progressive positions of the leading crews during the rally will be available. This is copyright free for editorial purposes and available at the following link:

http://www.fia.com/events/world-rally-championship/season-2016/stage-chart-12